The Process of a Breakdown
by Cassandra Hathaway
Summary: Jamie is on the verge of a nervous breakdown it seems, but the signs are far too subtle when her unusual behavior only becomes slightly more unusual. T for now, will become M much later on.
1. In Which Jamie Looses Her Phone

Okay, first and foremost, I only own Jamie and my ideas.

Second, I'm going to try as hard as I can to actually finish this story, but I can't promise anything. That said, I'm going to upload short pieces bit by bit as the story happens, whenever I can. Toward the end, the rating is going to change to M, I can tell you that already. Place this around the time Tommy returned as the white ranger, but before the peace conference. And if you're completely lost, try reading "And So it Begins."

I think that's pretty much everything.

Happy reading!

* * *

The first signs that Jamie was going to lose it were not unnoticeable things, but they were ignored, shrugged off as a 'bad day' that perhaps she hadn't been handling too well.

On a perfectly average Tuesday afternoon- evening for Jamie, considering she had spent most of her day on the east coast- the Rangers found themselves in the Youth Center, as per many a day. Tucked into a corner was Billy, cheerily and rapidly flipping through the pages of a thick book; Tommy and Jason were deeply involved in their usual friendly sparring match; at the end of the bar, Kim and Trini laughed with Zack, who had been showing off his latest dance routine as they waited for Ernie to take their orders.

"Hey, Ernie!" Kim waved as he finally turned his attention to them. "Can we have two mango-peach smoothies and a strawberry-banana?"

"Coming right up!" With a smile, Ernie quickly set aside a cooling latte- Jamie's usual, once she arrived- and began making the order. "Hold on a minute; I'm out of strawberries. Let me run in the back and grab some."

As he did, Jamie entered. Her hair was slightly more wild than usual and her posture was slouched, but she grabbed the latte from the counter and walked to the empty chair at Billy's table, all the while muttering "Mm-hmm"s and "Uh-huh"s into the phone that was pressed against her ear. She dropped her heavy book bag with a weary look, surprising Billy; she didn't quite seem to see him, only stared wearily ahead. "Okay," she sighed into the phone. "Yup. Yep. Uh-huh." Her friends stared as she checked her watch, raising her eyebrows. "Mm-hmm." She grabbed her coffee cup and walked around the bar, calmly adding another teaspoon of sugar before finally addressing her caller. "Jane, I'm about to go into a tunnel." With that said, she promptly and casually let the phone fall into Ernie's blender, snapped the lid back on her coffee cup, pressed the cover onto the blender, and pressed 'puree', stepping out of Ernie's way and walking back to her table as the phone was crushed together with pieces of ice and banana.

Her friends stared, understandably startled, unsure if they should laugh or walk away. "Jamie?" Jason finally asked, cautiously and gently rubbing his girlfriend's shoulders. "What- ah, what are you doing?"

She smiled brightly and turned to show him a book from her bag. "I just got the first folio copy of _Merry Wives of Windsor_, isn't that exciting?"

Jason sighed, watching as Ernie pulled a large plastic chunk out of his blender with a horrified look. "Yeah, Bright Eyes," he chuckled as she began flipping through her book, "that's… something else."


	2. In Which Jamie Gets a Little Messy

Fridays are good days. Everybody knows it's impossible to be mad on a Friday; it's simply a fact of life that no one can be miserable on a Friday.

Except, it seemed, Jamie.

"YOU DIDN'T NEED ME FOR THIS!" she screamed at Tommy, eyes flashing as electricity danced on her fingertips. "I HAD BAGELS! THERE WAS FREE COFFEE, AND PASTRIES, AND- ARGH!"She made some kind of wild flailing motion, the sparks in her hand jumping into a vicious blade of pure energy that effortlessly sliced the nearby putties in half; it was _probably_ an accident that she had nicked Tommy's arm as she did. "_WHY_?"

"Jamie," he huffed, knocking out a putty that Trini had sent his way, "this isn't a good time for this-"

"OF COURSE IT ISN'T! IT NEVER _IS_! IT NEVER, NEVER, _NEVER FREAKING IS!_" As she yelled it, her volume increased and her voice became shrill; her sparking hands became fiery, and a second later the energy enveloped the entire group of Rangers, disintegrating the putties instantly to ash and leaving her teammates staring.

"Dude, why don't you just do that every time?" Zack finally asked.

Jamie looked dangerously close to striking again, but only clenched her teeth, taking a deep breath. "Not the time, Zack," she hissed. "_So not the time."_

Kim cautiously approached Jason, sending him a weary glance. "Where did we steal her from this time?"

"Interview," he muttered quietly, "for a feature in the weekend Arts and Culture section."

"-I just can't _believe_-"

Billy chuckled nearby. "She hasn't yelled at him like this since that time he called her out of that playoff game you two were at."

"-the _biggest opportunity_ I HAVE EVER HAD-"

"Hey, I wasn't too happy about that, either. Do you have any idea how expensive Steelers post-season tickets are? Especially since they were playing in Baltimore! I spent good money on that game, and suddenly the communicators are going off-"

"Relax, breathe," Trini suggested, trying hard not to laugh. "You don't need to get mad, too."

"Yeah, Jamie's doing enough yelling on her own," Kim giggled.

"-NOT TO MENTION MISSING THE DAMN PLAYOFFS BECAUSE OF YOU-!"

"See? She's already covering it."

"I'm sorry!" Tommy finally cut in, backed against a tree, with Jamie only inches from his face. At this point, groveling was the only option. "I'm sorry, Jamie, I know it's important to you, but we were getting our asses handed to us! I didn't know what to do! Calling you was the only option! We couldn't do it without our best fighter!"

Zack joined the sideline conversation. "Oh, that's good; flattery never fails."

Jason shrugged. "But he's dead if she figures out he's lying."

"Nah, look, you can see it already; she's not as red in the face. Hey, I think her jaw unclenched!"

With a deep breath and a threatening crack of her neck, Jamie took a few steps back. "I guess I can't fault you for that." She looked at her watch. "I'm going to go now; if I get back soon enough, I might be able to lie my way out of this."

"That's a great idea," Tommy said, perhaps a little too eager. But as Jamie turned to go-

"That's a terrible idea!"

Each and every one of them froze on the spot when they heard the inhuman voice. As a single unit they turned, slowly, to stare at a monster. It was big, ugly, and looked like something thrown together from the crumpled and disgusting things found at the bottom of a book bag. With a heavy sigh, Tommy turned to his Rangers. "You guys read-?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

Hands halfway to their morphers they stopped, watching as Jamie flew through the air, body ablaze with electric energy and fire, and kicked the monster to its back. She stood over it triumphantly, foot planted on what they supposed was its gut, a glint of something purely evil in her eyes.

And then she let loose.

It was hard to tell which screams belonged to who as Jamie beat the creature to death with her bare hands, displaying a horrific animosity none of them had ever seen before- sure, they had all suspected it was hiding just beneath the surface, but they had never actually _seen_ it. At one point, the once of the voices stopped, but Jamie continued the merciless beating, the sparks flying off of each punch, driving what remained of the remains further and further into a growing crater in the ground.

By the time the Rangers grew courageous enough to approach the rim of the crater, there was nothing left, save for an emotionally and physically exhausted Jamie, covered in dirt and sitting in the mud.

She shrugged. "It's dead."

The gang blinked at each other. "We can see that," Jason said slowly.

"Just thought you 'ought to know." With that she stood, brushing some dirt from her arm, and walked out of the hole. "I'm going to go finish my interview now."

Kim seemed horrified. "Looking like that?"

"I'll just say the ceiling collapsed." With a shrug, she vanished in a glow of blue light.

They turned to Jason. "I-… I-… don't…" he faltered.

Tommy sighed heavily, rubbing his temples; Kim patted him consolingly on the back. "Jason, man, I get that she's cute, but do you think you could date a _stable_ chick next time?"

"Bro, I can't promise anything."


	3. In Which Jamie is Exhausted

Being around Jamie was done with caution for the next several days. Small incidents began to pop up- a drink dumped on a customer's head here, a threatening smash of a bottle on the wall there- but no one was quite sure how to handle them. Was Jamie to be confronted, or could that lead to a severely injured team of Rangers? Should she be left to go about her business, or would that result in battered and bloody bystanders? Days passed as the teens tried to figure their best course of action.

"We could try and send her to one of the Dark Dimensions," Zack suggested with a shrug, diving onto the mats and narrowly dodging Jason's punch. "Not forever, just until she chills out."

"Until we bring her back." Jason responded to the block with a kick and a quick duck. "Then we'd have something even more dangerous to deal with."

"Call me crazy," Trini said loudly from the sidelines, "but maybe we should go to the source of the problem and fix that first. Jason, hasn't she said if something's been bothering her at school?"

He laughed loudly. "They need fifteen hundred dollars in new equipment, five actors dropped out of her latest show, the head of the crew shattered his foot the other day, there's a mysterious beeping coming from some kind of smoke detector in her house, the basement flooded last week, and her Mustang had the trunk smashed in by those Power Rangers again." He laughed again. "I haven't been able to get a word in edgewise the past two and a half weeks."

Trini stared.

"What?"

"I think I just realized how insane all of our lives are."

"Hey, Jason!" They turned to see Ernie waving from the tables. "Have you seen Jamie?"

"I think she just left. Her shift was over, wasn't it?"

"I forgot her paycheck," he admitted with an embarrassed smile. "Could you call her?"

"Sure, she can't be far." It took a moment to dig the phone from his bag, but Jason pressed the speed dial and held the phone up to his ear.

Loud rock chords came from the juice bar. Unsure of what to expect, Jason took a deep breath, rubbed his tired eyes, and turned to where his astonished friends were looking: the far end of the juice bar, completely unoccupied, save for Jamie, laying on her back, hands clasped on her stomach, head tilted peacefully to the side and eyes serenely closed.

"Huh," Ernie finally said. "I wonder how I missed that." Mystified, he began walking toward her, only for the phone to start ringing; he changed his direction, calling over his shoulder. "Could you guys wake her up? I have to get this."

"Yeah…" Zack trailed off. He shook his head, as if he'd walked into a spider web, and motioned for Jason to join him. Together they approached the sleeping form, perhaps a little less cautious than they should have been, and exchanged a look. "You wake her; she's less likely to hurt you."

Jason sighed long-sufferingly. He reached out a hand and lightly brushed Jamie's shoulder. "Hey, Bright Eyes," he whispered, giving her a gentle shake. "Baby, it's time to wake up."

Zack couldn't help but roll his eyes before reaching for her other shoulder much less carefully. "Hey, Jamie!" he practically yelled in her ear. "What'd you think you're doing?"

It was like something audibly snapped as the situation suddenly played in slow motion. At a superhuman speed, they watched Jamie's eyes snap open as she rolled half on the bar and half on the counter into a crouched position, poised like a tiger ready to attack. It was hard to tell if she was smiling or baring her teeth in a snarl; it was hard to tell which the more terrifying possibility was. With an evil shine of blue in her eyes, Jamie propelled herself forward, one hand around Jason's throat and the other around Zack's as they stumbled backwards in a desperate attempt to keep up with her. Down the stairs, across the mats, across the entire building they were dragged as she flew, until she slammed them against the wall, flexing her grip a little too much.

"Jason! Zack!" Trini yelled, following close behind, only barely able to keep up with the sudden turn of events.

The names seemed to shake Jamie into reality. She shook her head, blinked a few times, and looked up her arms in surprise. Her eyes darted back and forth between her friends.

"Could you let us _go?_" Zack finally managed.

She released them, staring as she sorted out the situation. "You woke me up," she finally said.

"And you tried to kill us."

"Defense mechanism." She rubbed her eyes; in this light, they could much more clearly see the dark circles and bags that formed beneath them. "What time is it?"

"About four," Jason offered after looking at his watch. "Jamie, are you-?"

"I need a nap," she suddenly said.

"Is everything-?" He was left to watch her leave as she suddenly turned on her heel and stalked out of the room, leaving her bag at the bar and friends staring at each other in confusion.

Trini finally turned to Jason. "Yeah, nothing's wrong. You're _great_ at understanding your girlfriend." She walked away shaking her head and, seeing the rest of their friends come in, went to fill them in on the latest turn of events.

Zack slapped him on the back. "Well, good thing we got to her before Ernie, right?"


	4. In Which Jamie Finally Smiles

Midday on a Thursday, Billy approached the table of his group of friends with a grumble and a limp. "This is getting ridiculous."

Tommy shook his head. "What'd she do this time?"

"Dropped her bag on my foot. The one with the complete works of Shakespeare unabridged."

As a group, they stared at Jason, who sighed. "Look, guys, I don't know what to do! I'm not very good at this!"

Kim took pity on him and offered him a smile. "Maybe we can help?"

"Do we have to?" Zack mumbled, rubbing his neck where the last pains of bruises were starting to fade.

"Look, I think she just needs to get away. When she's not working here, working out, or obliterating space aliens, she's being bombarded with performance stuff and schoolwork and house work. You guys should go somewhere."

"That actually isn't a bad idea," Trini said thoughtfully. "If you both skip school tomorrow, you can get a three day weekend. Start driving tonight; I bet she'll be all better by Monday."

It was the perfect suggestion, but Jason had to sigh and shake his head. "I mean, it all sounds great, but neither of us can afford it. It's not like I have a lot of extra money, and all of hers is going into fixing the basement and replacing all of the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in her house."

Billy raised an eyebrow. "All?"

"She couldn't figure out which one was making which noise, so she smashed them all with a hammer."

He watched as Kim and Tommy exchanged a look; after a minute, with a sigh, Tommy reached into his pocket and set a ring of keys on the table. "Look, my uncle was going to let us going swimming up at his cabin this weekend, but I think this is more important. Take Jamie up there instead."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, my uncle's in Texas this month on business anyway, so it's not like anyone will be there. If anything happens, we won't call you until the absolute latest second we can."

"We can go swimming any weekend," Kim added, "but I don't think we have much longer before Jamie snaps and starts killing everyone and everything she sees."

It was a reasonable assessment. Jason pocketed the keys with a secret smile.

* * *

"WHAT?" Jamie yelled as she flung open her front door. "Oh, is it just you?"

"Yup." Jason smiled mischievously.

"Well hurry in before anyone sees." She ushered him in with a smile and small kiss and shut the door quickly. "I was just patching some of the cracks in the basement… why are you looking at me like that?"

"You won't believe what I just did."

She looked at him, wildly hopeful. "Got them to promise a weekend with no interruptions or calls or _people_?"

"Better."

"What could possibly be better than that?"

"I'll tell you if you tell me that you got everyone from the show to leave you alone."

"I knocked out a crew guy with a two-by-four, nearly made half the cast cry, and- by complete accident- put my foot through the stage. They won't call me for anything short of Satan emerging from the cellar."

"Wow. I _know_ you're acting and I'm still terrified." He laughed and sat on the couch, motioning for her to join him. "Well, I was _going_ to work up to the idea that you needed an undisturbed weekend at home," he began as she slid onto his lap, draping her arms around his neck, "but they said I should take you away before I could even say it."

She chuckled. "If I wasn't repairing a basement and ten smoke detectors, I'd have you in Spain so fast your head would spin."

"Yeah, I told them it was too… expensive… Did you actually break all your smoke detectors with a hammer?"

"Call it an exercise in method acting; I wanted to be a believable crazy person! I was channeling my inner Hamlet. Keep telling your story."

"Right. Anyway, I told them it was too expensive, and Tommy gave me _this_." He held up the jingling key chain in front of her very confused face. "He and Kim were going to go up to his uncle's cabin to swim one day this weekend, but they _insisted_ I take you instead."

Jamie's eyes got wide with excitement. "Seriously?" she squealed.

"Seriously."

"I get a romantic weekend at a lakeside cabin?"

"It gets even better."

She sat up straight and gave him a serious look. "If you bought me chocolate covered strawberries I might die of happiness right here and now."

"No, but I bet we can stop somewhere and buy some on our way up. No, _Trini_ of all people suggested that we should leave tonight, skip school tomorrow, and have an extended weekend."

With a screech of joy Jamie jumped up, dancing in some strange jumping circle, before sitting back on his lap and kissing him hard. "I love you," she said, kissing his lips, "I love you-" his cheek "-I love you-" his neck "-I love you!" She stopped, staring guiltily at the bruise she had just kissed. "Jeeze, did I really grab you that hard?"

"You shoved me up against a wall and tried to strangle me."

"It was your idea! I couldn't freak out on everyone except you!" With a guilty smile, she kissed his neck again… and again… bit him a little...

He couldn't help but laugh and gently push her back with a smile and a kiss on the lips. "Okay, save it for the cabin."

The reminder of their impending trip sent her jumping up again. "Right! Sorry! God, this is so much better than I was expecting! I'm going to pack," she called over her shoulder as she ran into her room. "Do you want to take your car or the Mustang?"

Jason smiled to himself, absentmindedly rubbing where her teeth had grazed him.

The freak outs were finished, and now the breakdown could begin.


End file.
